The Village of Wark

With hay and silage making being a bit late and harvest starting slightly early this year, farmers and contractors in the area were out in force last weekend.  Let’s hope that the weather holds and that they’ll be able to get on with it and complete the job for this year without too many mishaps.  After all with inputs like fertilizer and diesel being as expensive as they are, it’s really important that the harvest pays for those costs.

I hope you’ve all remembered that there will be a coffee morning in aid of the Wark MURC church, in the Westacres Community Room this Saturday,  6 August .  In addition to coffee, cakes and biscuits you’ll find a range of stalls.  Like with all these village get-togethers, you’ll  be made very welcome.  The coffee morning starts at 10 a.m.

Next weekend, Saturday 13 August, there will be a jumble sale in the Town Hall.  It’s not too late to give your attic or garage a bit of a clear out and most of us have at least some clothes we’re never going to wear again.  You can contact Judith Weir on (01434) 230250 to arrange to drop it off at the Hall.  The jumble sale itself starts at 1 p.m. and if previous years are anything to go by, there will be people queuing to get in.

I’ve been asked to let you know about a coffee morning in aid of the Wark MURC church, which will take place at the Westacres Community Room n Saturday 6 August .  In addition to coffee, cakes and biscuits you’ll find a range of stalls.  You’ll all be welcome to come in for a cuppa and a bit crack.  The coffee morning starts at 10 a.m.

On the following weekend, Saturday 13 August, Wark Town Hall will be holding its annual summer jumble sale.  This jumble sale has ended up being rather a draw for people from far and wide, so if you are looking for a new home for stuff that you no longer have space for, or don’t fit any longer, you can contact Judith Weir on (01434) 230250 to arrange to drop it off at the Hall.  The jumble sale itself starts at 1 p.m. and if previous years are anything to go by, there will be people queuing to get in.

The work on the bridge continues to be a source of wonder, if nothing else.  I’ve been amazed to see the amount of work done over recent days on the new ‘bridge heads’. Last week the sides of the bridge at the village end were taken off, leaving old sections stuck in the middle. I understand that these sides will be replaced like-for-like, so it will be interesting to see how good a copy they manage to produce.

It’s perhaps still a bit early to think about to autumn season, but I have now heard what Highlights events will be coming to the Hall between September and December.  We’re lucky enough to get two of the gigs, one with the New Budapest Café Orchestra and a second with the Hut People.  Both involve music but from very different traditions, as you might expect.  Whatever the tradition, you can be sure to have a good night, so keep and eye out for the dates later in the year.

The lift of the bridge girders seems to have gone ok last week and the whole structure looks most peculiar at the moment. It’s vaguely disconcerting to walk over the footbridge at the Birtley end without there being a bridge structure to be attached to. In the mean time a considerable amount of work has been done on the abutment of the Wark end, where a substantial amount of concrete has been poured to strengthen the structure.

The weather was good for growing trees last Sunday, but the wet was perhaps not so welcome for the Open Air Service on the Green. Fortunately a canopy had been erected and the people who attended more or less fitted under it. One of the sections in the children’s drama read: “The little seedlings pop up from the earth. Everything is growing again. As the mighty tree has added to its girth, the seedlings grow for all their worth.” Donations from this ecumenical event went to ‘Tree Aid’, a charity which helps people in Africa plants, protect and use trees sustainably. Tree Aid hopes to plant a million trees in Africa during 2011, which is the UN’s International Year of Forests.

It promised to be (and hopefully will have been, by the time you read this) a momentous week for the bridge. On Tuesday both the walkway and the road on the other side will be closed completely as the crane which will lift out the girders on the Birtley end will first travel to the site and then lift out those girders for repair. The whole operation depends on there being favourable weather conditions and if the wind is too strong the crane will stay in the compound until conditions improve. The third issue of the bridge newsletter reports that it will be possible to see the lift from the passing place of the bridge and I’m sure a good number of you will have made use of that opportunity.

Those of you who keep an eye on what’s happening at the bridge will have noticed that the footbridge at the Birtley side has been switched to the north side of the bridge. I understand that this is to allow a crane to operate from the south side and get the new deck into place. If you’re still a bit nervous about using the footbridge, you might be interested to know that the new one was inspected last week. When I spoke to bridge safety inspector last week, who mentioned that he reckons that new section would hold up to 5 tons, which is rather more that the bridge itself was meant to hold, so we should be fine for the time being.

About 1500 cyclists came through the village last Saturday on their 104 mile Cyclone Challenge of Northumberland. The Town Hall had been chosen to be a time check point and ‘re-fueling station’ with bananas, water, energy drinks and bars. This longest of three challenge rides was described as “a serious challenge for the more experienced cyclists or those who are very fit.” The route was (and is) very hilly with 2374m (7789ft)?of climbing with the highest point being Troughend Common. By the time the cyclists reached Wark they’d done about 80 miles and it was clear that some of them found it rather harder than they imagined. It was interesting to hear that people had traveled from all over the country to be here: one of the last teams to come through was a group from London, who’d only traveled up on Saturday morning and set off on their ride at 11.30 in the morning!

You’ll have to have a bit of a rest afterward, ‘cos you might want to join the ceilidh in the evening, also on Saturday 2 July and again in the Town Hall. Miss Coulthard has organised the event to raise funds for the gardening project at a school in Mae Juu in Tanzania. What I hadn’t appreciated until recently is that the band for the night, the Hexham Village Band, is one that Emily plays in herself! The caller for the evening is David Oliver, so not knowing the steps is no excuse; you’ll be given instructions and you can be guaranteed to have fun. Tickets are £5 and they are available from the school, Wark Post Office, Core Music in Hexham and Stonehaugh Village Hall. There will be a shared supper and you’re encouraged to bring a bottle for your own consumption.

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The saga of the bridge continues. Many of you will have read the latest update or heard stuff on the grapevine, but it now looks like cars won’t be able to cross the bridge until October. The newsletter seems to suggest that further delays might follow if things don’t go according to plan. I find it difficult to picture from the newsletter quite what they intend to do with the deck plates that have now been removed and with the metal girders underneath. With the deck removed, you can now see that they not in a good state and I’m curious to see what they look like once they’ve been done up. The newsletter also warns about days that the bridge will be closed completely but don’t yet give dates. I suppose we’d been warned about those occurrences, so they won’t come as a surprise.

This weekend there will be two interesting events in the parish. Tonight there’s the Acoustic Music Night at Stonehaugh Vilage Hall. The event is being organised by Miss Coulthard of Wark School, and is to raise money to support a school in Tanzania. The night will feature a range of artists from the North East and starts at 7.30 p.m. There will be home-made curry and a licensed bar. Then, tomorrow, Saturday 21 May Wark Town Hall is holding a Quiz Nights to raise funds, also starting at 7.30 p.m. You can enter team of up to 6 people in team and tickets are £4 per person. There will be a shared supper and a bar. You can get tickets from Judith Weir on (01434) 230250.

For next weekend, Saturday 28 May to be precise, you might want to make a note of the fact that the WI will be having a cake stall on the Green. It will start at 10 a.m. which really means that you need to be there about 15 minutes early so that you get in the queue. The WI cake stalls are always very popular so if you leave it too late, you’re likely to find it sold out.

You’ll remember that a few weeks ago I told you about the Bingo in aid of Wark Methodist-United Reformed Church. Well, I have now been told that that event raised a magnificent £360 for the church.  The organisers have asked me to extend a special thanks to all of you who supported the Bingo.

Many of you will have been involved, either as organiser or as participant in the Charity Lunch this week.  I didn’t have to give this annual event any great publicity this year as both sittings seems to have been booked up almost immediately.  As you know, this column is being written before the Lunch so I have to trust that everything has gone according to plan. 

This weekend, on Sunday 15 May, the Birtley & District Gardening Group will have its Plant Sale on at 2.00pm at Birtley Village Hall.  There are some great gardeners in Birtley and their plant sale is always worth a visit. Those of you living in Wark will know all about the bridge closure and the organisers of the plant sale will try to arrange lifts from the bridge car park. If you want to make use of this service, please ring (01434) 230204 the let them know.  For those of you coming from further afield,  please use the Barrasford/ Chipchase road or the A68.

Next weekend there will be two events in the parish which might tickle your fancy. First there’s the Acoustic Music Night at Stonehaugh Vilage Hall on Friday 20 May 2011.  The event is being organised by Emily Coulthard, one of teachers at Wark School, and is to raise money to build a school garden at in a partner school in Mae Juu in Tanzania. The night will feature a range of artists from the North East and starts at 7.30 p.m.  There will be home-made curry and a licensed bar.

Then on Saturday 21 May Wark Town Hall is holding one of its popular Quiz Nights, also starting at 7.30 p.m. You can enter team of up to 6 people in team and tickets are £4 per person. There will be a shared supper and a bar.  You can get tickets from Judith Weir on (01434) 230250.

Finally a mention for the weekly raffles at the Westacres coffee mornings.  They have raised no less than £300 for the Chrysalis at Tynedale.  This is a local group for active people with dementia. They do lots of activities with expert tuition and great volunteer support, so this is a very worthwhile cause.